[New-Poetry] Re: MFA

[Bob Marcacci]

idols... they're just as human as the rest of us... not me, i mean, but the
rest of you... *coughs* seems there would be a natural let down with the
expectations you bring to those situations... confrontations with your
idols... my idols are basically people who work and struggle and continue to
fight every day, starting with my parents, and extends outward from there...
hard to knock someone who's working at it, that is, trying...

the way poetry is studied in an MFA program? seems like profs can only teach
it the way they do it... that's not a bad thing... sometimes, as with all
things, the profs are dogging it and, more often then not, the students are,
as well... speaking from experience... everyone has to bring something to
the table...

and, well, the main part about writing is doing it, which is something many
nayers don't... it's natural that an emphasis would be on making it and/or
learning how to make it...

what's better for a writer? is there really anything bad? anyway, if you're
not up in it, it's hard to really know what works or doesn't and even harder
to change it...

-- 
Bob Marcacci
<http://marcacci.blogspot.com/>

The mechanism of poetry is the same as that of
hysterical phantasies.
 - Sigmund Freud



> From: <jfq at myuw.net>
> Reply-To: "NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp; Views"
> <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
> Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2006 07:14:10 -0700 (PDT)
> To: "NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp; Views"
> <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
> Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Re: MFA
> 
> I don't think that there is anything wrong with studying poetry and in fact I
> don't think it's possible to write well without studying poetry, even if one
> is not studying poetry.
> 
> MY objection, and i don't want to speak for anyone else, is to the *way* that
> poetry is studied in an MFA program, with a heavy focus on craft and
> workshopping, a secondary focus on certain aspects of whatever kind of
> critical theory piques the individuals attention, and more often than not,
> only a tertiary interest in surveying the field of poetry as it currently
> exists. I just think that one can do better as an autodidact because a.)
> workshops are a crapshoot at best and b.) if one really is interested in
> pursuing a post-graduate degree, pursuing specialized knowledge in another
> field is better for a writer than is spending many hours a week internalizing
> the poetic instincts of their peers, which may or may not be any better than
> the poets own instincts. What's that TS Eliot quote about how a poet reads
> spinoza? anyway, just wanted to clarify that my beef isn't with studying
> poetry, it's that i think there are better and worse ways of going about that.
> 
> 
> On Mon, 2 Oct 2006, Anny Ballardini wrote:
> 
>> 
>> As I said some time ago I don't think there is anything strange in wanting to
>> study. What I find strange is that on a New Poetry list so many people
>> express negative statements against those who are committed in an MFA in
>> poetry.
>> 
>> I would even support people studying engineering, or medicine or mathematics
>> or physics, and before saying that they are not poets I would read their
>> poetry.
>> 
>> This seems so wise to me. Don't tell me that I am approaching wisdom. Just
>> like that.
>> 
>>  From: AlMaginnes at aol.com
>>  Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 12:34 PM
>> 
>> 
>>  It might be better that strudying with one's idols often does involve
>> disappointment. Might push you out the door toward your own path a bit
>> sooner.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
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> 
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